Distant bird shots

[Eric Freeman]

These birds were (obviously) too far away to get good shots of, so I thought I'd compose as if I was shooting landscapes that just happened to have birds in them. I've been hunting the Red-Tailed Hawk for about a month, and have figured out his habits, but getting a close-up has eluded me so far. C&C always welcome.


Great Blue Heron, 8x10 by ScubaDude1960, on Flickr


Red-Tailed Hawk by ScubaDude1960, on Flickr

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Eric,

I think the protocol is to post one pic per frame,..but anyway lets take a look. I really like your thinking it is unique and shows a different perspective of nature. The opportunity here is image quality (IQ). Were the crops large? It is one thing to take a wide angle picture and shows trees and birds and another to crop a picture significantly to include the same view. In the second case the IQ will suffer due to the reduction in image side,..the less information to produce the picture.

Please provide the exposure tecks with crops size (estimates will work). Thanks, like I said like you approach need more information to finish the critique.

[John Chardine]

Hi Eric- Jeff is correct, only one image at a time, and only another image as a repost of the first.

I like the idea of small subjects in simple, elegant environments, like you have show here. The heron image is more balanced than the hawk, which is one sided with half the image blue sky. Nevertheless, again, I like what you are trying here. The main problem with the images is much too aggressive sharpening. As well as providing the techs for the image, could you describe how you sharpened the images.

Thanks.

[Eric Freeman]

Sorry about the 2-pic post... guess I should read the FAQ. These shots only have the sides cropped to fit an 8x10 format. The oversharpening is caused by Flickr... my photos often look different when uploaded, especially at other-than-the-uploaded resolution.

The exposure on #1 is 1/320 second, f/6.3, ISO 200 (taken with my T1i and EF 400mm f/5.6L lens).
#2 is 1/640 second, f/6.3, ISO 200, same camera and lens.

[Kerry Perkins]

Hi Eric, your post resonates with me as I think we sometimes get too rigid in our thinking about what makes a good image. I like the included habitat and sense of space in the images (yes, we ask that only one image be posted per thread). I do feel that they are both a bit too wide in perspective and a tighter crop could still make strong images of both. Thanks for posting the technical details, it helps us understand the thought process behind the images. Thanks for sharing!